Phone freezes PC

[WorkHorse]

I have a 56 modem to connect to the Interent. The phone is hooked up to the PC. All of a sudden, whenever I hang up the phone when the PC is running, the screen changes to a bunch of lines and the PC freezes. What is wrong?

[JungleMan]

Don't hook the phone up to the PC maybe?
They sell those little splitter things in Radio Shack which turns one phone jack into two.

[Jethro]

Not sure what ISP software you got running, but try disconnecting first using that....sounds like you got an interrupt message happening, and the IRQ your modem is using is getting hit......

[Zaei]

I was thinking about this one last night.

Basically, the way a phone works is through various levels of electricity running through it. When the phone is idle, and not in use, x number of volts are running through the phone line and into your phone. x is a low number of volts (i dont remember the numbers). When your phone rings, y number of volts run through it. y is a high number of volts. When you pick up the phone and start talking, z number of volts are running through your phone. z is a number between x and y. When the phone company is running z number of volts to your phone, they are charging you. This leads us to the various phreaker "boxes" that you can build to cheat your phone system, but we wont go into that.

What may be happening is that when you hang up your phone, the voltage spikes for some reason, and your modem takes it badly. As jpbtennisman said, your best bet would be to go out and buy a phone jack splitter, and connect both your phone and modem to that. It should be pretty cheap at Radio Shack, or whatever.

Z.